Fate's Games
(A/N: Third up today. This one actually came from an experience my brother had while playing this quest. He already knew it so he ran way ahead and pretty much killed everything before these two could get half-way through the cave. When he went back, though, he couldn't find them no matter where he looked. He waited twenty-four hours and still nothing. Eventually he found them, but all the while we had a running joke going on that is reminiscent of this one-shot.)
A Lover's Betrayal
She was young and reckless, she was filled with energy, she was bursting with excitement. He was older and wiser, he was filled with caution, he was bursting with ambition. If he had told her the sky was blue she would have argued and said it was red. If he said yes, she said no. If he said no she said yes. She was a tiring girl and he was an indifferent yet protective guardian… She was free and he was her father's slave…
As they camped outside the ruin she wanted to explore, they fought. They always did. She wanted to go in blades drawn, spells ready. He wanted to bring backup… so she wouldn't have to be the one to die… She was completely unsuspecting of his plans, of his ambitions. Naïve girl, so trusting and reliant. Couldn't she see the distraction in his eyes? Couldn't she sense the distance between them? Couldn't she feel it in the air, the change, the threat, his plans for her if she were to be the only one there?
He wouldn't go into the cave. She wouldn't be the one he would sacrifice. Was that true, though? If no one came would he so easily throw his plans to the side just to spare his ward? He'd been with this girl since she was born, practically raised her himself. No… no, he wouldn't be able to hurt her, he determined. He couldn't. Salma, give it up, walk away from this place. She trusted him so completely. How could she suspect that he plotted such deceit and wickedness?
"Beem-Ja, did you hear that?" she suddenly asked, snapping him out of his musings. He looked quickly over and prepared to fight. Up the path strode a young man, a traveller no doubts. At least he believed the man to be a traveller… until the stranger shouted at a wolf nearby and sent it flying. Dragonborn! Oh, this could be useful to him. Now suddenly the ruin didn't seem like a place to avoid. They invited him along on realizing his intentions to enter the place, and the course was set in motion.
ES
The two followed the Dragonborn. Nothing stood in the man's way. He fought. What he left behind they finished while he kept on running. They strode along at a leisurely pace, hardly caring. Her hand was wrapped in his as she looked excitedly yet fearfully around for anything that could possibly be attacking. She liked the feel of his skin, she always had. It was dry and scaly but so soft and so rough at the same time. It was a strange sensation, but she loved it.
She looked up at him. He was watching the walls cautiously, reptilian eyes scanning at angles she couldn't hope to see. He was distracted yet she sensed he was willing to do anything and everything to protect her. Wasn't he? She'd always thought he was, but lately there seemed to be a kind of… distance between them. She didn't like when there was distance between them. It made her feel alone and vulnerable. "Hey, are you okay?" she asked. He seemed to snap out of his thoughts. He glanced down at her curiously. "What's going on, Beem? What's on your mind?" she asked.
"Nothing," he replied.
"Don't lie to me, please. I know you better than that," she said, moving in front of him and taking his other hand in hers.
He paused, looking down at their entwined hands, his clawed and hers filed. It was an odd contrast. He'd always liked contrast. He looked up at her and forced a smile. Gently his hand cupped her cheek. He leaned down, resting his horned forehead against hers. "Don't worry yourself, Salma. I'm all right," he assured. She smiled worriedly at him, but the smile fell as easily as it had come.
"You're worrying me. You've been worrying me for a while," she said to him.
"Forgive me, my dear. My thoughts are occupied elsewhere," he replied.
"Well stop it," she firmly insisted. She smirked seductively and added, "Occupy your thoughts with me. The Dragonborn won't even notice we're gone."
ES
He smirked like a serpent and hissed in his throat. This was the side of her he'd never ever expected he would ever see. This side was the side that had appeared the day she'd become a woman, and as he now knew had been festering since she was a child. It had shocked him beyond belief. The night she'd come of age, of age to be called a woman that is, around eighteen, she'd revealed it. She'd approached him that night while he was swimming in a lake near her home. She knew it was a time he liked to be alone. She'd known he wanted privacy when swimming for reasons that didn't take much imagination to guess at. She'd slipped onto a branch above the water. He hadn't seen her. She'd stripped and dove into the water silently. He hadn't even been aware of her until she'd wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist.
The girl had nearly given him a heart attack. The girl had almost cost him his life that night. If her father had spotted what she'd been doing, he would have been executed on the spot. He'd immediately slipped away from her hissing and thrashing like an alligator. Scales helped with that. When wet they were incredibly slippery. He'd turned on her in fury. She'd hardly reacted. He'd assumed she would begin to cry when he began to let her have it angrily. She hadn't spoken, hadn't looked at him, hadn't replied, but she never cried. When he'd finished his rant she'd turned to look at him and she'd said, "I won't stop." He still shivered when the memory of those words returned to him.
He'd avoided her desperately, like the plague, but she'd stayed true to her word pursuing him at every turn. Eventually he found himself asking why he was avoiding her in the first place. Sometime after her first advance, he caved. Again she had come to him while he was swimming. Again she'd done what she'd done that first night. This time, though, he'd accepted her advance.
ES
"Now is hardly the time for us to do any such thing, my dear," he replied.
She stroked the scales on his neck softly and moved down to his robes. Gently she began toying with them, opening the clothes ever so slightly. "You're remembering that night… when you finally let me into your heart and soul and body," she said. He said nothing. She leaned against him, resting her head in his chest. "I nearly cost you your life. We were seen, and the next time I saw you… The next time I saw you, you were bound in chains clothed in nothing but a loincloth, and on your knees before us. He ordered you to be whipped and then beheaded."
"Enough, it's over now. Nothing happened," he said.
"You still have the scars from the lashes you were given," she murmured. She shivered, tears in her eyes, and sniffed, wiping them away. She looked up at him and said, "I can still hear your screams…"
"Enough… It's over now," he replied, drawing her close and holding her tightly. She was shaking. "I remember what you did for me. You fell to your knees and bowed to your father over and over, begging him to stop, to spare me. Your pleas fell on deaf ears. They went to execute me, but before they could you screamed at your father, saying, 'If he dies, I die with him.'… Everything stopped… Everything stopped and that was it."
"Oh gods," she said, suddenly taking his lips passionately. He returned just as eagerly and longingly. "I love you. Oh divines, Beem, I love you."
"Hush, my dear, hush. No more dark thoughts, just us," he pled, pulling her into a dark corner quickly and eagerly. She was right. The Dragonborn wouldn't realize they were gone. He could put his own ambitions on hold. In seconds scaled body was pressed against human flesh without hesitation or remorse.
ES
He was the one who caught up to the Dragonborn first, long before she was even awake. At least, he thought it was long before she was even awake. The Dragonborn had reached the last chamber and he… He betrayed his plan and plot for the man, cruelty and wickedness in his eyes. It would have all gone off easily. Well, he had hoped it would. Either he would die or the Dragonborn, simple as that, but then a voice, scared and hurt and betrayed, said, "Beem? Beem, what are you doing?" He stiffened and turned quickly.
"Stay out of this, Salma," he warned evenly. "Stay out of my way." All at once he began to attack the Dragonborn.
"Beem-Ja!" she screamed in terror, looking over the railing in horror. She immediately raced down to help the Dragonborn. "What's wrong with you? What are you doing?! Stop this!" she pled desperately as she fought with the Dragonborn against the man whose arms she'd only just been in moments earlier.
"Stupid girl, stay out of this!" he sharply ordered.
"This isn't right, Beem, stop before you're killed!" she begged.
"Too late for that," the Dragonborn growled, shoving past the Redguard girl and tackling the Argonian.
"No!" she screamed as the two rolled down the steps. For a moment Beem-Ja had the upper hand. It looked like he was about to kill the hero, and on top of it a Draugr Death Overlord was attacking as well! The Dragonborn and the Argonian rolled apart as the Overlord shouted at them. The two attacked it together. She raced down to help. Between the three of them the Overlord fell quickly and the Dragonborn and Beem were at each other's throats. The Dragonborn pulled back and went to shout at the Argonian. A surge of desperation shot through her and she raced forward, getting between him and her guardian!
The Dragonborn shouted and she went flying back into a wall. She struck hard and fell to the ground. "Salma!" Beem exclaimed, attention diverted. She was painfully rising onto her arms. She looked towards him. Her eyes widened.
"Beem!" she shrieked. All at once the Dragonborn's Warhammer crashed against the Argonian and sent him to the ground with a shriek of anguish. "No!" she screeched.
ES
It was silent. She was watching helplessly, lips parted in fear and alarm. The Argonian was clutching his ribs tightly, gasping painfully for breath. The Dragonborn stood at the ready to execute the Redguard's protector. "No…" she whispered, shaking her head at the man as he glanced up at her. The Dragonborn raised the hammer. "No!" she screamed, forcing herself to rise. "Please, don't!" The Dragonborn brought the hammer down. In a desperate attempt to escape, Beem-Ja rolled to the side. The hammer caught him, knocking him to the side. He rolled and laid still.
Salma shakily stood, gaping in horror at the body of her guardian, her lover. The Dragonborn approached quickly and seized her arm. He pulled her up the stairs though she struggled desperately, trying to reach her still friend. "Enough, enough," the Dragonborn ordered. He had no right to tell her 'enough!' That was Beem's favorite thing to say to her when she was becoming anxious or talking too much. The man shook her and she suddenly stopped, just stopped. She couldn't believe what had happened, what she'd been seeing.
"I can't believe it," she said. "Beem was… he was going to betray my father… he was going to betray me. He's been part of my life since I was a little girl. To think he could do something like this… Why…? You-you killed him, why did you kill him?!" she demanded. "He would have stopped, he would have stopped!" She burst into tears, sobbing and weeping. "Beem-Ja!" she screamed in anguish, unable to tear her eyes away from the sight behind her. All at once the Dragonborn was fleeing the scene, disappearing down into the tomb. She didn't care, she didn't go after him. Instead she walked slowly down the stairs and approached the Argonian's body. She gazed down at it then knelt, gently stroking his scales, now caked in blood. "Beem…" she whispered, tears slipping down her cheeks unchecked. "I forgive you… I still love you. Please, please… come back… come back…" she begged. With an anguished scream she fell over his body sobbing uncontrollably.